We extend our sincere congratulations to Nihal El Guenani for the successful defense of her doctoral thesis, “Electrochemical Transformation of Plastic Waste and Organic Compounds for the Generation of Value-Added Materials”.
The defense took place at the Salón de Grados of the Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud (Universitat Jaume I) on March 6, 2026.
Dr. El Guenani has been awarded the distinction of Excellent in recognition of the high quality of her doctoral work.
Her research focuses on the development of innovative electrochemical systems for sustainable energy conversion, green hydrogen production, and waste valorisation. The research addresses pressing global challenges related to renewable energy storage, circular economy strategies, and the replacement of energy-intensive processes with efficient and scalable electrochemical alternatives. To this end, a series of electrochemical transformations were designed and systematically evaluated, including the reforming of biodegradable plastics, the selective oxidation of organic substrates, and the reversible redox conversion of nitrogen-containing compounds for hydrogen storage applications. These systems aim to contribute to the development of hydrogen storage technologies based on Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carriers (LOHCs) while simultaneously enabling the production of value-added chemicals.
The thesis was presented under the supervision of Dr. Antonio Guerrero and Dr. Elena Mas Marzá and was carried out at the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM).
The evaluation committee was composed of Prof. Sixto Jiménez (UJI), Dr. Sara Goberna (Instituto de Tecnología Química, CSIC-UPV) , and Dr. Diego Mateo (Instituto de Tecnología Química, CSIC-UPV).
We congratulate Dr. El Guenani on this important academic achievement and wish her every success in her future scientific career!
